Final Gathering (FG) Rollout (mental

ray Renderer)
Dec 17 2014 | In-Product View

Applies to 3ds Max 2015

Final gathering is a technique for estimating global illumination for a

given point by either sampling a number of directions over the
hemisphere over that point (such a set of samples is called a final
gather point), or by averaging a number of nearby final gather points
since final gather points are too expensive to compute for every
illuminated point. In the former case, the hemisphere orientation is
determined by the surface normal of the triangle on whose surface the
point lies.

Render Setup Dialog > Global Illumination panel > Final Gathering (FG)
rollout

Note:The Global Illumination panel appears only when the mental ray
renderer is the active renderer.

For diffuse scenes, final gathering often improves the quality of the
global illumination solution. Without final gathering, the global
illumination on a diffuse surface is computed by estimating the photon
density (and energy) near that point. With final gathering, many new
rays are sent out to sample the hemisphere above the point to determine
the incident illumination. Some of these rays strike diffuse surfaces,
and the global illumination at those points is then computed by the
material shaders at these point, using illumination from the photon map,
if available, and from other material properties. Other rays strike
specular surfaces and do not contribute to the final gather color (since
that type of light transport is a secondary caustic). Tracing many rays
(each with a photon map lookup) is very time-consuming, so it is done
only when necessary. In most cases, interpolation and extrapolation from
nearby final gathers is sufficient.

Final gathering is also useful without photon tracing; in fact, this is

the recommended method of indirect lighting for non-expert users. By
default it takes only first-bounce indirect light into account, but you
can obtain physically accurate results by increasing the number of
bounces to between 3 and 7 and using a high values for density and ray
count .

Interior
rendered with
final gathering
only, lit by
daylight only

Final gathering
is useful in
scenes with slow
variation in the
indirect
illumination,
such as purely
diffuse scene s.
For such scenes, final gathering eliminates photon map artifacts such as
low-frequency noise and dark corners. With final gathering, fewer
photons are needed in the photon map and, because each final gather
averages over many values of indirect illumination, lower accuracy is
sufficient.

In film production work, final gathering increasingly replaces photon

mapping, except for caustics. Without multiple-bounce effects, which are
performed by photons by default and by final gathering only if the
shaders adjusts the trace depth, tends to have far less impact on the
final image than the first bounce that final gathering supports by
default. Although physical correctness is lost, this is often sufficient
for film production, and final gathering is easier to control than
photons emanating from distant light sources. However, for accurate
indoor illumination simulations and other CAD-related applications,
photon mapping is still the method of choice.

Procedure
You can find additional procedures for using final gather in rendering
animations here .

To use an environment map as a final gather light source:

Illumination from which final gathering is derived can be provided by an

actual light source, of course, but it can also be provided by an object
to which a self-illuminated material is applied, or even an environment
map. In the latter case, follow this procedure:

1 Add a skylight to the scene.

 2 Do either of the following:
o On the Skylight Parameters rollout, make sure Sky Color (the
default) is chosen, click the map button (None) to open the
Material/Map Browser dialog and then choose a map.
o On the Skylight Parameters rollout, choose Use Scene
Environment. Use the Environment panel controls to assign an
environment map.

Thereafter, rendering with final gather enabled take the skylight map
into account when calculating final gather illumination.

Tip:For extra realism, use an HDR image as a Bitmap map image .

Interface
Note:The Final Gather Map controls found on this rollout in releases
prior to 3ds Max 2010, are now on the Reuse (FG and GI Caching) rollout .

Basic group

Enable Final
Gather
When on, the
mental ray
renderer
uses final
gathering to
create
global
illumination
or to
improve its
quality.
Default=on.

The leftmost
position of the
Final Gather
Precision slider
on the lower
panel of the
Render Frame
Window also
turns off
Enable Final Gather.

Tip:Without final gathering, global illumination can appear to be

patchy, but final gathering increases rendering time. Leave Enable Final
Gather off to preview the scene, and then turn it on for the finished
rendering. (Increasing the number of photons used to calculate global
illumination can also improve global illumination.)

Multiplier / [color swatch]

Adjust these settings to control the intensity and color of the
indirect light accumulated by final gathering. The default values,
1.0 and white, produce physically correct rendering.

These settings are useful for adjusting the contribution of the final
gather effect, thus improving the quality of an image.

FG Precision Presets slider

Provides a quick, easy solution for final gather. The default presets
are: Draft, Low, Medium, High, Very High, and Custom (the default
choice). Available only when Enable Final Gather is on.

The presets affect the following settings:

o Initial FG Point Density

o Rays per FG Point
o Interpolate Over Num. FG Points

The preset settings are defined in the text file

mentalray_fg_presets.ini, found in the \plugcfg folder in 3ds Max
installation. You can modify the existing presets and add new ones by
editing this file.

This setting is also available on the Rendered Frame Window, as Final

Gather Precision .

[drop-down list]
Choose a method for avoiding or minimizing the final-gather
flickering that can result from rendering an animation with a
still or moving camera, especially when the scene also contains
moving light sources and/or moving objects.
o Project FG Points From Camera PositionDistributes final
gather points from a single viewpoint. Use this when the camera
from which youre rendering the animation does not move, thus
saving rendering time.
o Project Points from Positions Along Camera
PathDistributes final gather points across multiple
 viewpoints. Use this when the camera from which youre
rendering an animation moves, especially if youre seeing
flickering in areas that are lit mainly by final gathering.
This method can result in slightly longer rendering times.

Also, when using this method, set the Divide Camera Path by Num.
Segments parameter to an appropriate value, and increase the Initial FG
Point Density setting (see following).

Note:This method is most effective for relatively brief shots from a

camera that doesnt move very quickly. If youre rendering an
animation in which the camera moves a significance distance between
frames, such as 30-frame dolly shot of a large stadium, you might
achieve better results by using the Final Gather Map feature, generating
a map for every frame, by itself, or combined with Project
Points ....

For procedures that describe how to achieve flicker-free animations in

different situations, see this section .

Note:When you use this method, before rendering each animation frame,
the Rendered Frame Window shows the final-gathering precalculation for
all segments.

Divide Camera Path by Num. Segments

Choose from the drop-down list the number of segments into which to
divide the camera path when using the Project Points from Positions
Along Camera Path option (see preceding).

The available values are squares of the numbers 1 to 10. Youll need to
determine the best value experimentally, but as a rule of thumb, set the
number of segments to at least one per 15 or 30 frames.

Also, when increasing this setting, be sure to set Initial FG Point

Density higher. Again, youll need to experiment, as the optimal
setting depends very much on the scene contents, lighting, and so on.
Start with a low value and increase until the results look good.

Initial FG Point Density

A multiplier for the density of final gather points. Increasing this
value increases the density (and thus the quantity) of final gather
points in the image. The points will therefore be closer together and
more numerous. This parameter is useful for solving geometry
problems; for example, near edges or corners. Default=1.0.

Tip:When adjusting final render settings it's often helpful to visualize

the final gather points; to do so, turn on Diagnostics and choose the
Final Gather option.

Rays per FG Point

Sets how many rays are used to compute indirect illumination in a
final gather. Increasing this value makes global illumination less
noisy, but also increases rendering time. Default=250.
Interpolate Over Num. FG Points
Controls the number of final gather points that are used for an image
sample. It is useful for solving noise problems and getting smoother
results.

For each final gather point, mental ray interpolates (averages) indirect
light values over the nearest N final gather points, with N specified by
the value of this parameter, as opposed to points within the specified
radii as with the alternate method . Increasing the value increases the
smoothness of the result, and the required number of calculations, hence
the render time (but not as much as you might expect).

This setting is unavailable when Use Radius Interpolation Method is

enabled.

Diffuse Bounces
Sets the number of times mental ray calculates diffuse light bounces
for each diffuse ray. Default=0.

Like Maximum Reflections and Maximum Refractions, this value is subject

to the restriction of Max Depth. If you set Diffuse Bounces higher than
Max Depth, the latter setting is automatically raised to the Diffuse
Bounces value in the MI output file, but this is not reflected in the
3ds Max interface.

This setting is also available on the Rendered Frame Window, as FG

Bounces .

Note:When Global Illumination is on, changing this setting has no effect.

Weight
Controls the relative contribution of the diffuse bounces to the
final gather solution. The value scales from "using no diffuse
bounces" (value=0.0) to "use full diffuse bounces" (value=1.0).
Default=1.0.

Advanced group

Noise Filtering (Speckle Reduction) drop-down list

 Applies a median filter using neighboring final gather rays that are
shot from the same point. This parameter lets you choose a value from
a drop-down list. The options are None, Standard, High, Very High,
and Extremely High. Default=Standard.

The practical effect of increasing the Noise Filtering value is to make

the scene illumination smoother, at a cost of render time. However,
increasing filtering can also make the illumination somewhat darker.

Noise Filtering works by eliminating stray rays that are considerably

brighter than most of the rest. For example, in a situation in which
most of the rays are within 10 percent of each others brightness, but
a few are 50 percent brighter than the rest, using Noise Filtering will
tend to disregard the latter rays in computing the Final Gather
solution.

As a result, in low-light situations, setting Noise Filtering=None can

greatly increase the overall illumination. In the following rendered
image, an interior scene, lit only by skylight entering through the
window, is very dark with Noise Filtering set to Standard (Diffuse
Bounces=1).
Noise Filtering=Standard

In the next illustration, the same scene renders much brighter with
Noise Filtering set to None. Note, however, the unevenness of the
illumination.
Noise Filtering=None

In cases like this, you can achieve superior results with slightly
longer rendering times by setting Noise Filtering to Standard and using
a sky portal in the window opening, as shown in the following
illlustration:
Noise Filtering=Standard + Sky Portal

The above illustration is also improved by the realistic shadows cast by

the chair and table legs from the Sky Portal light.

Draft Mode (No Precalculations)

When on, final gathering skips the precalculation phase. This results
in a rendering with artifacts, but begins rendering more quickly, so
it can useful when you want to do a series of trial renderings.
Default=off.

Trace Depth group

The Trace Depth controls are similar to those for calculating

reflections and refractions, but they refer to the light rays used by
final gathering, rather than to rays used in diffuse reflection and
refraction.

Max. Depth
Limits the combination of reflection and refraction. Reflection and
 refraction of a light ray stop when the total number of both equals
the Maximum Depth setting. For example, if Maximum Depth equals 3 and
the trace depths each equal 2, a ray can be reflected twice and
refracted once, or vice versa, but it cant be reflected and
refracted four times. Default=2.
Max. Reflections
Sets the number of times a ray can be reflected. At 0, no reflection
occurs. At 1, the ray can be reflected once only. At 2, the ray can
be reflected twice, and so on. Default=5.
Max. Refractions
Sets the number of times a ray can be refracted. At 0, no refraction
occurs. At 1, the ray can be refracted once only. At 2, the ray can
be refracted twice, and so on. Default=5.
Use Falloff (Limits Ray Distance)
When on, uses the Start and Stop values to limit the length of light
rays used for regathering before using the environment color. This
can help improve regathering time, especially for scenes that are not
fully enclosed by geometry. Default=off.
o StartSpecifies the distance, in 3ds Max units, at which
rays begin. You can use this value to exclude geometry that is
too close to the light source. Default=0.0.
o StopSpecifies the maximum length, in 3ds Max units, of a
light ray. If the ray reaches this limit without encountering a
surface, then the environment is used for shading. Default=0.0.

FG Point Interpolation group

These settings provide access to the legacy method of final gather point
interpolation.

Use Radius Interpolation Method

When on, makes the remaining controls in this group available. Also
makes the Interpolate Over Num. FG Points checkbox unavailable,
indicating that these controls override that setting.
Radius
When on, sets the maximum radius within which final gathering is
applied. Reducing this value can improve quality at a cost of
rendering time. If Radii In Pixels is off, the radius is specified in
world units, and defaults to 10 percent of the maximum circumference
of the scene. If Radii In Pixels is on, default=5.0 pixels.

If both Radii In Pixels and Radius are off, the maximum radius is the
default value of 10 percent of the maximum scene radius, in world units.

Radii in Pixels
When on, the radii values are specified in pixels. When off, radii
 units depend on the value of the Radius toggle. Default=off.
Min. Radius
When on, sets the minimum radius within which final gathering must be
used. Decreasing this value can improve render quality but increase
rendering time. Unavailable unless Radius is turned on. Default=0.1.
If Radii In Pixels is on, default=0.5.

Tip:In general, increasing the point density is better than decreasing

Min. Radius.

Tip:To minimize flickering in animations, keep the two Radius values as

close to each other as possible.

Parent topic:Global Illumination Panel

Procedure

I'm actually using the version 2009 of 3D max but the same concepts can
be applied to the newest version 2010. This tutorial is not trying to
explain in depth all the features of Global Illumination with Mental
Ray, I would like to explain the most important concepts that will help
you to develop your own rendering technique and apply this knowledge to
different scenes in a optimal way, with out over-killing values that
will only increase your render time.

To start we open the rendering menu, select the indirect illumination

option, basically Mental Ray has 2 way to simulate indirect
illumination, one is called Final Gather the other one is Global
Illumination. I will cover Final Gather only in this tutorial.

In the Final Gather window the first scroll control, configure FG with
different preset values, as you can see, this preset can be easily used
in a production environment, but from time to time you'll need some
extra tweaking of these values, to get the optimum result between render
time and quality.

This area is the core of FG and this values are the fist that we should
play with.

Initial FG
point density:
control how
"dense" or how
many FG rays are
in one sample
area, that means
when the bigger
these values are, the more FG ray will be concentrate in one area, then
your solution will be more precise, but the FG calculation will take
longer.

Rays per FG
point: This
controls how
many ray of FG
are counted for
your solution,
more rays, more
precision, but
at cost of render time, this is one of the controls that I play the
most.
A D V E R T I S
E M E N T

Interpolate over
number of FG
point: This option controls how many ray are merged or how many rays are
counted to get one average lighting information, this can speed up your
render time and mostly smooth some dark areas of you FG solution, but if
you over use it the Indirect illumination solution will be less precise
and also can create some over bright areas.

Diffuse bounces:
This control how
many bounces in
the scene a FG
ray will have
before it return
the light
information,
when more bounces, the scene will tend to be more illuminated, but the
render time will be longer.

So let's get
started with a
practical
exercise. I will
work with the
Sponza Atrium
scene, from
Marko
Dabrovic(mdabrov@rna.hr) well known to many of you.